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Monday, December 12, 2011

25 Days of Christmas and Holiday Series: Day 12

Do you have a holiday party to attend this year? Are you looking for a neat little something to give a neighbor or a friend? Would you like your gift to have a personal feel, yet not break the bank?

If you have been reading The Homeless Finch for a while, you know that I am a huge yard sale gal and thrift-aholic. One of the items that I see frequently are coasters. They are always is such great condition and the person is getting rid of them for reasons like they have changed their decor and such. When you see coasters at a steal of a deal, no matter how ugly, grab them. Or if you have a set sitting in a drawer somewhere that you have grown tired of, consider upcycling them into a gift.

This is what I started with....

For the first set I used Gesso to coat the tops of the coasters after gently sanding the surfaces. While the gesso was drying, I went over to one of the best sources for online free graphics, The Graphics Fairy and found four different, but thematically similar vintage Victorian graphics of Christmas Children. I wanted four different images, one for each coaster in the set of four.

Lightly sanded edges

Using Mod Podge, I decoupaged the images onto the gesso-ed surface, then used gold metallic acrylic paint to finish the edges. Here are the results...

I took another set of old coasters and gave them several coats of Valspar Red Spray Paint. I worked very lightly, adding layers as the paint dried. This was important for good adhesion and a nice surface

After 2 coats.

After 5 coats

I then took out my holiday decorative papers. The type we find in the scrap booking section of craft stores. On Day 3 of this series, I used the same pack to create my Christmas Memories Photo Pennant Banner. I wanted to use the numbers 1, 2,3, and 4 on this next set along with individual squares from the advent calendar part of the paper pack to place on these coasters.

I then cut out the individual squares with my pinking shears (zig zig scissors) and arranged them in a grid pattern on the four red coasters. I numbered them 1 through 4.

I decoupaged the paper squares down using Mod Podge. I put several coats over the top, waiting between for the layers to completely dry. I finished the edges off with a little metallic gold acrylic paint.

Here are the results.

For the the next set, I decided to make a present for someone special. Me!!! Many of you know if you have been following The Homeless Finch that I had new slipcovers made this past year in my living room. I decided to recover a set of coasters using some leftover fabric scraps from that project.
After cutting four different fabrics out to 4 by 4 inch squares, I made sure and use Dritz Fray Check on the cut edges. I then glued the fabric down using Mod Podge and finished off the edges with a little trim that I picked up at Joann's Fabrics. Here are the results.

Do you have an old set of under utilized coasters sitting around that could use a holiday update ? How about giving this to a friend using papers or fabric to compliment her home? It's fun, green and an inexpensive way to give the gift of a homemade item.

Now all I need is a little toddy to set on my new coasters in the living room! Gotta go shake something up!

16 comments:

ok literally i am sitting here painting tiles to be coasters as i read this! :) one of my best friends has a bday on 12/29 so i am sending her coasters with her christmas gift, too. i love your red ones- so cute!!!

I love those! I've actually bought coasters with plans to do that very thing, but you know how my plans have been going lately. going, going, gone.......Anyway, I like the way you arranged the numbers on those and I LOVE the fabric ones. Great job!

I really must make some of these for our Christmas! I've got some extra time since we won't have the family together until Jan.20. Then I won't have to follow everybody around with coctail napkins. :@ I especially like the red coasters!

These are wonderful! It's such a coincidence that I ran across this post. I just purchased (cheap) some white tiles that I'm going to use with my 4 older "Grands" to make coaster sets to give as gifts to their parents. I hadn't thought about using fabric, but that's a great idea! Thanks so much for sharing!CAS